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Migration Studies

HAMTRAMCK, USA

By Razi Jafri, Justin Feltman

Once a city that was 90% Polish, Hamtramck became the first Muslim majority city in America. Now, this new wave of immigrants aim to gain representation in city hall.

HAMTRAMCK, USA follows Kamal Rahman, a Bangladeshi candidate for Mayor, Fadel al-Marsoumi, a 23 year old Iraqiimmigrant running for City Council, as well as the current mayor, Karen Majewski, Hamtramck's first female mayor in the city's 100 year lineage of Polish mayors. Throughout the election, candidates look to build support, coalitions, and partnerships across ethnic and religious lines.

Weaved into the election season, the film showcases the vibrant life, celebrations, and culture of those who call this cityhome. At the end of the election, regardless of who ultimately wins, Hamtramck will need to come together, with a new identity or the remaining fragments of the past, to face the many challenges ahead

DVD / 2020 / 89 minutes

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HOME CALLED NEBRASKA, A

Directed by Beth Gage, George Gage

People in Nebraska wholeheartedly welcome refugees and show that the newcomers enrich their communities, their economies, and their lives.

In 2020, with America's Refugee Resettlement Program hanging by a thread, A HOME CALLED NEBRASKA is the story of midwestern welcome, acceptance, and unlikely friendships during a time of national anxiety and emboldened bigotry. In 2016, the conservative state of Nebraska resettled more refugees per capita than any other state.

A HOME CALLED NEBRASKA spotlights people who escaped war, torture and persecution. It also introduces the generous Nebraskans who welcomed them, taught them, celebrated with them, and helped them find jobs and houses. Today these refugees are succeeding, and are giving back to the communities that supported them.

This heartwarming documentary by Beth and George Gage (American Outrage, Bidder 70) offers hope and an antidote to racist nationalism: communities of people in Nebraska who work to dispel fear, build bridges and change their own perceptions along the way. Here is a compelling portrait of ordinary people standing up for what is right, inspiring us to do the same.

DVD / 2020 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 69 minutes

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UNIVERSALITY OF IT ALL, THE

By Andres Bronnimann

A feature-length documentary that focuses on the topics of human migration and inequality, blurring the boundaries between film and documentary through a fresh and nuanced perspective.

The film is as intimate, as it is informative as it explains the complexity of human migration by providing valuable data and information, but also by showing how it affects the reality of two friends and their day-to-day lives.

DVD / 2020 / 90 minutes

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WAYS OF BEING HOME

Directed by Cecilia Cornejo

An evocative audiovisual meditation on the experience of Mexican immigrants living and working in rural America.

This intimate cinematic portrait of two small towns - one in Mexico and one in Minnesota - is an evocative audiovisual meditation on the experience of Mexican immigrants living and working in rural America. Vivid cinematography, richly layered soundscapes, short animated sequences, and a constellation of testimonies introduce audiences to Maltrata, an agricultural town nestled in the mountains of Veracruz, Mexico, and to Northfield, a college town in southern Minnesota where many Maltratans have immigrated and settled. By means of a nonlinear narrative and a camera that thoughtfully yet viscerally meanders between everyday scenes in both towns, Chilean-American director Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo (dir. I WONDER WHAT YOU WILL REMEMBER OF SEPTEMBER) shows the complexities of, and contrasts between, these places.

Filmed amidst increasing violence and political unrest in Mexico and the rising anti-immigrant sentiment that took hold during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the voices of fiercely determined and hard-working women coalesce to offer a nuanced portrait of a transnational community. Ultimately, the film is a testament to the resiliency and ingenuity of uprooted people as they craft a life and a home fostered by ritual, relationship, and community rather than solely by geography.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2020 / 72 minutes

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BORDER SOUTH

Directed by Raul O. Paz Pastrana

Reveals the resilience, ingenuity and humor of Central American immigrants while exposing a global migration system that renders human beings invisible in life as well as death.

To stem the immigration tide, Mexico and the US collaborate to crack down on migrants, forcing them into ever more dangerous territory.

Every year hundreds of thousands of migrants make their way along the trail running from southern Mexico to the US border. Gustavo's gunshot wounds from Mexican police, which received a lot of press attention, might just earn him a ticket out of Nicaragua. Meanwhile anthropologist Jason De Leon painstakingly collects objects left behind by migrants on the trail, which have their own stories to tell. These remains, from Hondurans crossing through southern Mexico, reveal a vivid portrait of the thousands of immigrants who disappear along the trail.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 83 minutes

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DAY ONE

Directed by Lori Miller

Traumatized Middle Eastern and African teen refugees are guided through a program of healing by devoted educators at a unique St. Louis public school for refugees only.

DAY ONE follows a group of teenage refugees from war-torn countries who are enrolled at a unique public school for refugees and immigrants-only in St. Louis, MO, where they are guided through an inspirational program of education, healing and trauma intervention by devoted educators, some of whom have chosen to relocate to the inner city to support their students.

Over the course of a year, we watch the kids progress through layers of grief and loss as they attend school, forge new friendships, and prepare to be mainstreamed into local public high schools. Their triumphs and tribulations all unfold with St. Louis as the backdrop: a rust-belt city that has taken the bold step of welcoming immigrants as a solution for their growing socio-economic problems.

DVD / 2019 / (Grades 6-12, College, Adults) / 82 minutes

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VITALINA VARELA

By Pedro Costa

Portuguese director Pedro Costa has continually returned in his films to the Fontainhas neighborhood, a shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon that's home to largely immigrant communities. Not merely a chronicler of the poor and dispossessed, Costa renders onscreen characters that exist somewhere between real and fictional, the living and the dead.

His latest, a film of deeply concentrated beauty, stars nonprofessional actor Vitalina Varela in a truly remarkable performance. Reprising and expanding upon her haunted supporting role from Costa's Horse Money, she plays a Cape Verdean woman who has come to Fontainhas for her husband's funeral after being separated from him for decades due to economic circumstance, and despite her alienation begins to establish a new life there.

The grief of the present and the ghosts of the past commingle in Costa's ravishing chiaroscuro compositions, a film of shadow and whisper that might be the director's most visually extraordinary work. (synopsis courtesy of the New York Film Festival)

DVD / 2019 / 124 minutes

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BIRTH ON THE BORDER

By Ellie Lobovits

This intimate and personal documentary follows two women from Ciudad Juarez as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border legally to give birth in Texas, putting their hearts and bodies on the line as they confront harassment at the hands of U.S. border officials.

One million people legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day in both directions. Among them are women who cross for the purposes of childbirth. With the threat of obstetrical violence in Mexican hospitals and the desire for natural birth with midwives, Gaby and Luisa make the difficult decision to cross the border to El Paso, seeking a safer future for their children. Even with papers, their journeys are uncertain.

Against the backdrop of oppressive U.S. border policy and growing debates over immigration, these women's stories of risk, strength, and resilience shed light on the realities and challenges of life on the border.

DVD (English, Spanish, Color, Closed Captioned) / 2018 / 28 minutes

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COLOSSUS

Director: Jonathan Schienberg

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - from The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus

Told through the eyes of 15-year-old Jamil Sunsin, Colossus is a modern-day immigrant tale of one family's desperate struggle after deportation leads to family separation, and the elusive search for the American dream.

Jamil is the only person in his family born in the U.S. His parents and sister came from Honduras and lived in America for a decade before Jamil's father was arrested for being undocumented. The entire family was forced to return to Honduras, a country wracked with violence. After a knife attack traumatizes Jamil, his family makes an excruciating choice to send him back to the U.S. alone.

Now 15, Jamil tries to survive without his family and fights against a broken immigration system. Back in Honduras, his sister Mirka, who would've been eligible for DACA had she remained in the U.S., hopes to someday reunite with Jamil. This intimate portrait is a rare look into the aftermath of deportation and family separation, amidst the current backlash against America's immigrants.

DVD (English, Spanish, With English Subtitles) / 2018 / 84 minutes

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SOUNDS OF IMMIGRATION

Directors: Yael Kipper & Ronen Zaretzky

A cinematic-literary look at the lives of immigrants, who came to Israel over the course of 20 years, all residents of Block 461 in Maalot-Tarshiha, a mixed city in the North of Israel. The film observes the lives of people who immigrated from Russia and are still searching for their place, people who fled Lebanon 14 years ago when they were children and are just starting to realize how complex their lives are, and young people from the community of ''Bnei Menashe'', Kuki people who just arrived from Manipur, India on the Myanmar border, and moved directly to Maalot. The film presents a dialogue between cinematographic expression and a literary text written by Israeli novelist Sara Shilo.

DVD (Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, With English Subtitles) / 2018 / 82 minutes

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THIS IS HOME: A REFUGEE STORY

Directed by Alexandra Shiva

Sundance award-winner puts a human face on the global refugee crisis by providing an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugees arriving in the US and struggling to find their footing.

THIS IS HOME is an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugee families arriving in America and struggling to find their footing. With only eight months of help from the International Rescue Committee to become self-sufficient, they must forge ahead to rebuild their lives in a new home: Baltimore, Maryland. They attend cultural orientation classes and job training sessions where they must "learn America" -- everything from how to take public transportation to negotiating new gender roles.

When the newly imposed travel ban adds further questions and complications, their strength and resilience are put to the test. Through humor and heartbreak, this universal story illuminates what it's like to start over, no matter the obstacles. THIS IS HOME goes beyond the statistics, headlines, and political rhetoric to tell deeply personal stories, putting a human face on the global refugee crisis.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 91 minutes

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STILL WATERS

Directed by Peter Gordon

In his tiny, one-room, after hours, free school in Brooklyn, Stephen Haff teaches forty Hispanic kids reading, creative writing and Latin.

A remarkable one-room school in Brooklyn is facing a tough year. It's the run up to the US presidential election and anti-Latino rhetoric is ramped up--an extra source of tension for a hard-pressed Hispanic community already threatened by gentrification and eviction.

The school, Still Waters in a Storm, is the creation of Yale grad Stephen Haff. A passionate critic of mainstream education, he believes in the joy of learning without tests and the innate creativity of children and insists that the school is free. It survives precariously on the thinnest of shoestrings.

When regular school finishes, Still Waters starts working. Stephen and his group of children explore, with the help of illustrious guest writers like twice Booker Prizewinner Peter Carey, the power of storytelling, creativity and community. And along the way they discuss Donald Trump and gentrification with humor and passion.

Filmed over a year STILL WATERS follows this compelling man, his philosophy, the spirit of the children who attend, and the dreams and fears of their immigrant Hispanic community.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 79 minutes

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BABYLON DREAMERS

Director: Roman Shumunov

Headspins, windmills, and b-boying: a group of immigrants from the former Soviet Union form a breakdancing troupe in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Israel. They dream of competing in the International Breakdancing Competition in Germany, but the road is paved with hardship and crisis. Lacking an instructor, they learn moves from videotapes and move one step closer to their goal.

DVD (Russian, Hebrew, English, With English Subtitles) / 2016 / 90 minutes

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STRANGER, THE

By Linda Midgett

The Stranger is a 40-minute documentary film commissioned by the Evangelical Immigration Table. The film's log line best describes it: "Immigrants, Scripture and the American Dream".

The film profiles three immigrant stories and includes interviews with local and national Christian leaders. By highlighting biblical teaching related to immigrants, sharing compelling stories of immigrants who are also evangelical Christians, and addressing some common economic and political misconceptions, The Stranger seeks to mobilize viewers to respond to immigrants and to immigration policy in ways that are consistent with biblical principles.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 40 minutes

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DON'T TELL ANYONE (NO LE DIGAS A NADIE)

By Mikaela Shwer

Since the age of 4, Angy Rivera has lived in the United States with a secret that threatens to upend her life: She is undocumented. Angy arrived with her mother, fleeing violence, poverty, and civil war in their native Colombia. For 20 years they live in the shadows, struggling to stay afloat financially and avoid deportation while battling a complex and inequitable immigration system. "Don't tell anyone" is a phrase whispered often and branded deeply on the consciousness of all who are undocumented.

Now 24, unable to pay tuition for college and facing an uncertain future, Angy joins the youth-led New York State Youth Leadership Council (YLC) with whom she dons a bullhorn at pro-immigration rallies, telling all who will listen that she is "undocumented and proud." Rivera becomes an activist for undocumented youth with a popular advice blog "Ask Angy" and a YouTube channel boasting more than 27,000 views. She steps out of the shadows a second time to share her story of sexual abuse, an experience all too common among undocumented women. DON'T TELL ANYONE (NO LE DIGAS A NADIE) follows Rivera's remarkable journey from poverty in rural Colombia to the front page of The New York Times

DVD (Color) / 2015 / 75 minutes

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EAST OF SALINAS

Directed by Laura Pacheco, Jackie Mow

Jose Anzaldo is an excellent student with a bright future except that he is undocumented, the child of migrant farm laborers in California's Salinas Valley.

EAST OF SALINAS begins with 3rd grader Jose Anzaldo telling us what he wants to be when he grows up. His parents work from sun up to sun down in the heart of California's "Steinbeck Country," the Salinas Valley. With little support available at home, Jose often turns to his teacher, Oscar Ramos, once a migrant farm kid himself. In fourth grade his teacher told him if he worked hard he could have a different life. Oscar won a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley. The day he earned his degree, he bought a car and drove home to the fields. He's been teaching ever since.

Jose is Oscar's most gifted student. But how do you teach students like Jose who have no place to do their homework? How do you teach a kid who moves every few months? This is what Oscar is up against every day. Oscar not only teaches his students reading, math and science, he gives them access to a world beyond their reach.

But Jose was born in Mexico--and he's on the cusp of understanding the implications of that. As we watch this play out over three years, we begin to understand the cruelty of circumstance--for Jose and the many millions of undocumented kids like him.

EAST OF SALINAS asks, What is lost when kids like Jose are denied opportunities?

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 53 minutes

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BETTER LIFE, A: UNA VIDA MEJOR

By Olivia Carrescia

After 30 years of war, a difficult peace, migration, economic, social and cultural upheaval, for her new film Olivia Carrescia returns to Todos Santos, to examine the changes that have taken place. The Todos Santeros now have cell phones, TV's and large cinderblock houses, but are they better off?

The civil strife of the 1980's ended in the official Peace Accord of 1996, but left many of the conflict's underlying social and economic problems unresolved. An increasing number of Todos Santos, rather than traveling as they had done for generations to the coastal cotton plantations, began traveling back and forth to the U.S. - legally or illegally. They sent back cash remittances that those who were left behind used for household necessities, and later for clothes, electronics and other items. Before long, homes similar to those the migrants saw in the United States and in the luxury resorts of Cancun, Mexico, began springing up in this traditional Mayan village. As a result, Todos Santos grew and prospered, becoming a commercial hub in the northwestern mountains of Guatemala.

But the prosperity was not to last. Long term migration and the economic crisis of 2008 in the U.S. has had severe repercussions in this once small mountain village.

In A BETTER LIFE we meet again Santiaga, the weaver and resourceful homemaker, Benito, the former school teacher, and Desiderio, the wise environmentalist - all familiar to those who have seen the Todos Santos trilogy of films. Along with returning migrants and newly introduced villagers, young and old, the impact of profound change and altered expectations is explored with the sensitivity, awareness and insight that have characterized this documentary series.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 52 minutes

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